The Augmented Reality Sandbox

The Augmented Reality Sandbox (orginally developed by researchers at UC Davis) lets
users sculpt mountains, canyons and rivers, then fill them with water
or even create erupting volcanoes. This version of the device at UCLA was built by Gary Glesener
using
off-the-shelf parts and good ol’ playground sand.

Any shape made in
the sandbox is detected by an Xbox Kinect sensor and processed with open
source software. It is then projected as a color-coded contour map onto the sand.

Mami, papi, we did it! After 22 long years of picking strawberries, nurturing the fresas, day after day, being kissed by the sun, I am finally your fruition today. I am the fresa you’ve worked so hard to preserve, to love, to nurture. Today, i am ready to be the sweetest thing you ever did grow. This degree is for the immigrant families that have crossed borders and who have thrived. mami, papi, this degree is ours, the strawberries can no longer claim you as their own.
PC: cargocollective.com/eljorgeflores

This is your brain experiencing a concussion

It may look like this model brain is made of Jell-O, but it’s the same consistency as a real brain.

As Dr. Christopher Giza from UCLA demonstrates, the brain is made of soft tissue and floats in fluid inside of the skull. When the skull moves quickly, the brain can jostle around a lot, which can lead to neurological symptoms.

“Most concussions are recoverable,” Giza said.

But concussions can be difficult to identify and some people suffer
more serious symptoms, particularly after multiple concussions.

Lab studies have shown a “window of vulnerability” after a first
concussion, Giza said. Concussed athletes are three to six times more
likely to get another concussion. If they rush back to play, their
reflexes, reaction time and thinking may be slower, putting them at risk
of a second concussion and longer recovery period.

My roomate and I got into a vicious pillow fight and I was chasing her around the apartment and we were making quite a bit of noise. Apparently, we were making much more noise than we thought because around 10 p.m. the cops showed up at our door because someone reported some noises that sound like domestic violence in our building.

It wasn’t until we were half way through talking to the police that we realized the complaint was about us so we kept a straight face and continued to lie to the police.

And here it is–I double majored in Spanish and Chicana/o Studies graduating Cum Laude from UCLA. 10 years later and I finally have my diploma. Being a mortuary school dropout, to being in community college on and off for six years, losing my grandmother, being in a toxic relationship where I was told I focus too much on my education, and owing almost a grand in fees to UCLA, it’s finally in my hands and I literally cried. It’s so surreal cause I never believed this day would happen. Thank you to everyone who actually supported me on this decade long journey.

It’s important that immigrant children get degrees. That we become the fruit that our parents have harvested through their struggle, the ones they’ve nurtured, and fed, and watered and loved and lived for. Mami, this degree is for you. The strawberries can no longer claim you as their own.

First, when a white person claims to be the victim of racism, what they are really doing is expressing their fears that their privileges might be taken away. Second, they are saying that they experience the same form of oppression that people of color face. Sorry to break it to you, but there is no system that actively works to oppress and subjugate white people in order to treat them as inferior. To say that a white person has experienced racism just like any person of color assumes that the playing field was level to begin with.

An invisible force at the center of our galaxy

Scientists have theorized that our Milky Way galaxy has a super massive black hole at the center of it, but how did this idea come about? How do astronomers measure something that has actually never been seen in our telescopes?

Above is an animation of star movements in our galaxy over the past 16 years. They all orbit around a point that emits no light in our galaxy. We can measure the mass of these stars and calculate that their orbits require an object with the mass of 4 million Suns. So far this points to a super massive black hole in our galaxy.

A new gel helps wounds heal

The new synthetic polymer material creates an instant scaffold, sort of like stacked gumballs, that allows new tissue to latch on and grow within the cavities formed between linked spheres of gel.

Conventionally, ointments and other hydrogel dressings have been used to fill in wounds to keep the areas moist and accelerate healing. But none of the materials used now provide a scaffold to allow new tissue to grow while the dressing itself degrades. As a result, the new tissue growth is relatively slow and fragile.

So bringing about an injectable biomaterial that promotes rapid regeneration of tissue has been a “holy grail” in the field of tissue engineering, said co-principal investigator Dino Di Carlo.

They envision the material being useful for a wide variety of wound application, including lacerations to large-area burns.

UC Berkeley researchers have also been developing new approaches to tissue engineering. Last March, their advancement in “herding cells” marked a new direction for smart bandages.